


caught me slippin'

by fenying



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Accidental Implied Confessions, Alternate Universe - College/University, First Kiss, Fluff, Ice Skating, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:53:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22459045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fenying/pseuds/fenying
Summary: "Are you sure this is legal?""This is perfectly legal," argues Donghyuck, although he doesn't sound all that convincing when he's tried twelve different keys already and has just gotten the thirteenth one stuck in the lock.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Lee Jeno
Comments: 26
Kudos: 115





	caught me slippin'

**Author's Note:**

> title courtesy of the lovely nat! also christened "the bastard fic" as per yoon's suggestion
> 
> much love to avi for looking this over for me!

"Are you sure this is legal?"

Donghyuck scoffs to the tune of jangling keys as he tries unsuccessfully to jam yet another key into the lock. The remaining twenty or so keys clack loudly against each other, sliding back and forth on the metal ring. He gets this one stuck in the lock. It's the thirteenth one he's tried so far.

Jeno watches him brace one foot on the door as he tries to pull the key out, cursing under his breath.

"This is perfectly legal," argues Donghyuck, although he doesn't sound all that convincing when he's talking through gritted teeth, eyebrows furrowed together in concentration.

"This is breaking and entering."

"It's not!" On his fourteenth try (thank god, Jeno thought they would be stuck outside the locked back door for days), the lock finally gives. With a push, the door creaks open, rusted hinges squealing like pigs. Jeno winces. "See? We're using a set of keys that was freely and willfully given to me. There's nothing illegal about this at all."

"Telling Jaemin you'd set him up with Renjun in exchange for the keys to the rink doesn't sound free to me," says Jeno.

Donghyuck humphs. "You're just jealous I know the way to men's hearts, Lee Jeno."

"Yes, because I am feeling so utterly romanced right now."

In Jeno's defense, he has the right to be a little crabby. Donghyuck had shaken him awake at ass o'clock in the morning ("only 2 am!" he’d insisted, as if that makes it any better) and dragged him into the freezing December cold to go _ice skating_ , of all things. He'd spent the entire walk over gleefully crowing over how Jaemin had succumbed to his wiles (read: bribery).

Jeno shoots him a glare through eyes narrowed with sleepiness. Donghyuck winks back. "Just you wait. I'll sweep you off your feet."

"If you actually do that, I'm leaving you here by yourself and going back home," Jeno threatens.

"No, wait!" Donghyuck grabs his hand, sending a jolt up his arm. Jeno doesn't even have the chance to be properly flustered before Donghyuck drags him inside, toward the skate rentals.

The last time he went skating, Jeno remembers, as Donghyuck helps him lace up his skates, was three years ago when they were still in high school. Donghyuck, resident hockey prodigy, had not raised a single finger to help Jeno, who was about as adept on the ice as a newborn baby deer. When Jeno had slipped, legs flying up into the air and butt landing hard on the ice like a movie-style fall, Donghyuck had laughed so hard he cried.

Jeno hopes it'll be different this time.

It's almost pitch black. Donghyuck didn't want to risk turning on the big overhead lights, so they're relying on the faint blue sheen of the emergency lighting surrounding the edges of the rink. The ice looks different in the darkness, harsh white clean-cut lines replaced by the rippling calm of a lake in the dreamy haze of a midwinter night.

Donghyuck pushes the gate leading to the rink open and steps out onto the ice. In a panic, Jeno grabs the back of his jacket before he can sail across and leave him behind. "Wait."

Donghyuck gently disentangles his hand from the fabric, threading their fingers together instead. "Don't worry," he says, smiling softly. "I'll take care of you."

Jeno looks into Donghyuck's eyes and takes a deep breath. He places one shaky blade onto the surface of the ice.

"You got this," says Donghyuck.

Jeno gets both skates on the ice. Donghyuck’s still smiling, grabbing his other hand so that he’s holding both. That's the only warning Jeno gets before they're off.

"Oh my g— wait—" Jeno digs his nails into the backs of Donghyuck's hands, clinging on for dear life. "Donghyuck!"

Donghyuck laughs, melodic. "Just relax!"

Effortlessly, he glides backward, leading Jeno along around the edge of the rink. Jeno stiffens up completely, scared to move a muscle, and lets Donghyuck pull him along.

"You're not going to fall and die if you move, you know," Donghyuck tells him with a snort. "Try taking a few steps."

Jeno shakes his head resolutely. "No thanks, I'm good."

Donghyuck clicks his tongue. "You're such a child."

"I accept that." Jeno metaphorically digs his heels in (he can't really do much, since Donghyuck's still pulling him around) and refuses to budge. Ice is not his forte. He much prefers non-slippery ground where he can wear shoes that aren’t balanced on a knife’s edge.

Like the demon he is, Donghyuck pouts, as if to remind Jeno why he bothered crawling out of his warm bed to freeze his ass off in the middle of the night. "Come on, Jeno, I thought we were gonna have fun. Just you and me, the bestest of pals, skating in an empty rink at 3 in the morning."

Jeno’s chest twinges. He thinks it stopped being just "guys being bros" when he started doing this—letting Donghyuck pull him around, agreeing to every one of Donghyuck’s ridiculous ideas just because it’d make him smile so big, as if Jeno had given him the world. It hasn’t been “guys being bros” for a while now.

"Fine," he huffs.

Donghyuck beams.

"Just bend your knees and lean forward," he says, slowly pulling his hands away. Jeno tightens his grip instinctively. "Jeno."

"Sorry," says Jeno, shoving down a whimper. "I just—"

"It's okay," says Donghyuck, soothing.

"But—"

"Don’t be afraid to fall,” he says, locking eyes with Jeno, and Jeno feels like there’s a double meaning somewhere in there. "One step after the other. Just like walking."

Easy for him to say, Jeno thinks as he gingerly scoots his feet forward. Donghyuck skates like he was made for it—like his sole purpose in life was to strap knife-shoes to his feet and walk on frozen water, kind of like Jesus. Jeno snorts at his own description. It's not nearly poetic enough to do Donghyuck justice, but it's true.

"What's so funny?" asks Donghyuck.

"Nothing," says Jeno. Like a baby duckling, he waddles after Donghyuck.

Donghyuck lets Jeno cling onto his hands, patiently guiding him through his step-shuffle-step-shuffle. “See, it’s not that hard, right?”

As they travel around the rink, blades carving trails into the wet ice, Jeno starts to feel less like he’s about to fall at any given moment. “I’m… kind of getting it,” he admits, once he successfully takes a few steps without holding onto either the rink walls or Donghyuck.

“That’s great,” says Donghyuck, and Jeno really doesn’t like the grin on his face right now. When Jeno reaches for him again, he glides nimbly out of reach, jetting to the far side of the rink. “Now try a bit farther.”

“Wait, what—” Jeno slides forward from reaching out for Donghyuck, skates seemingly ignoring all laws of physics as he barrels towards the other side of the rink, arms flailing. “Donghyuck, help—”

Donghyuck catches him right before he slams both of them into the wall, twirling Jeno around and saving him from Pain By Hard Plastic Structure And Frozen Water. “See, it wasn’t that bad, was it?” asks Donghyuck. His hands burn through Jeno’s jacket where they’re placed delicately on his waist, leaving warm imprints on his skin. Jeno shivers.

“You’re the worst,” he tells Donghyuck in lieu of an actual response. It _wasn’t_ that bad—it was actually fun, Donghyuck was right—but he won’t admit it. Lightly, he pummels Donghyuck with his fists. Donghyuck’s shoulders shake with laughter. “I can’t stand you—any of you ice skater types, but especially you—“

“All of your friends are ice skaters of some sort,” Donghyuck gets out in between laughs, “what are you going to do without any of us?”

“Find new friends,” says Jeno, resolutely, “ones who won’t drag me out in the middle of the night to make me skate—”

“Jeno, that’s just me,” says Donghyuck, grinning.

“Why is it just you, huh?” Jeno crosses his arms with some difficulty—Donghyuck still hasn’t let go of him. Jeno’s not ready to give the bratty charade up yet. “Jaemin and Renjun wouldn’t pull this on me.”

“That’s because Jaemin and Renjun don’t like you the way I do,” says Donghyuck, suddenly serious, eyes focused on Jeno like he’s the only other person in the whole world.

Jeno’s breath catches in his throat, and Donghyuck’s eyes go wide, like he’s just registering what he’d said. “I— I mean—“

Jeno’s knee suddenly gives out, buckling as the blade of his skate snags on Donghyuck’s and sends them both tumbling down. It’s Donghyuck that hits the ground, back landing flat against the ice and breath rushing out of him with an _oof._ Jeno lands neatly on top of him.

“Oh my god,” rushes Jeno, cradling the back of Donghyuck’s head with his hands and checking for injuries. “I—“

“Holy shit that hurt,” yelps Donghyuck, face scrunching up. “Is this what you feel like all the time?”

“Well—“ Jeno retracts the apology that was about to fall off his tongue, letting a smirk replace it instead. “How the tables have turned.”

“Oh, come on,” says Donghyuck, truly oblivious to how close they are—bodies pressed flush together, faces mere inches away—he’s already started ranting. “It’s not like I was the only one who fell, both of us are on the ground here— and _you_ were the one who made us fall—“

“Give it a rest, Hyuck,” says Jeno, and leans down to kiss him.

It’s certainly not an ideal position and definitely not what Jeno imagined his first kiss with Donghyuck would be like at all. The keys in Donghyuck’s pocket are digging into Jeno’s side and his arms are cramping from trying to support both himself and Donghyuck’s head, but it’s nice. It’s perfect, because it’s Donghyuck, and Jeno wouldn’t want it any other way.

Donghyuck’s hands come up to cup his face, fingertips cold against his cheeks. Jeno closes his eyes. The world around him stops, like a movie on pause—he chases the warmth of Donghyuck’s lips, vibrant color bursting out of monochrome.

When they pull apart, their breaths mingle together in white puffs, visible in the cold. It should be gross, and it kind of is, but not really. Not when it’s Donghyuck, and Jeno’s been wanting this for so long that he’d never considered what it’d be like to actually have it. Donghyuck’s eyes slide open, irises swimming with a honeyed affection that makes flowers bloom in Jeno’s chest, fireworks go off, there’s probably a choir of angels singing in the background somewhere—

“My back is so fucking cold,” hisses Donghyuck, shouldering Jeno off him and pushing himself up on his hands. “I think my hip is going to freeze in this position. Jeno, this is all your fault.”

Jeno opens his mouth to protest but ends up laughing at Donghyuck’s hair, pushed up in placed and flattened in the back from lying on the ice. His cheeks are cherry red and he’s still pouting even though his lips are already swollen and it’s sort of kind of really adorable. Jeno’d live in this moment if he could.

“Baby,” he snorts.

“Am not!” Donghyuck protests.

“Are too,” says Jeno, and pecks him on the cheek too, for good measure. Donghyuck bats him away, scowl doing absolutely nothing to hide his blush.

He helps Donghyuck up, letting him lead them towards the edge of the rink and out the gate to the skate rental area. Just as Jeno finishes unlacing his last skate, a voice—vaguely familiar—cuts through the silence. “Who’s there?”

Donghyuck flinches, throwing his skates onto a random rack without checking the size. “Fuck, it’s Kun.”

Jeno hasn’t even put his shoes back on yet. “Who?”

“Doesn’t matter,” says Donghyuck, grabbing the keyring off the bench. “We gotta go.”

“Come out and reveal yourself,” says the voice, footsteps growing louder.

Donghyuck shoves Jeno towards the back door. “Run!”

They make a break for the exit, stumbling out into the biting cold. Donghyuck slams the door shut behind them, and it only takes him three tries this time to find the right key—an improvement—and lock the door.

“What happened to ‘perfectly legal?’” asks Jeno, accusatory. He’s still breathing heavy from the sudden sprint, heart pumping from a mix of exertion and pure adrenaline. “I told you this was breaking and entering.”

Donghyuck opens his mouth, then snaps it shut. “Are you at least feeling romanced now?” he asks.

Jeno ponders it. “Yeah,” he admits.

“One for two, then,” says Donghyuck. “I’ll take it.”

He grabs Jeno’s hand, linking their fingers together, and starts off on their walk back to the dorm. Jeno follows, eager to go back home where he is legally allowed to be. He can expect cuddles once they’re back—and maybe more—and that’s enough to spur him to start running, laughing out loud in the dead of night and taunting Donghyuck to catch him if he can.

Donghyuck does catch him eventually, wrapping himself around Jeno like a koala and planting a kiss on him before sprinting off to win the race back home, ignoring Jeno’s cries of foul play.

“Why the fuck did Kun call me seven times last night? At 3 a.m.?” asks Jaemin in the morning, pillow lines on his cheek like he’d slept like a log the entire night. Which Jeno knows he did.

Donghyuck exchanges a look with Jeno. “No idea.”


End file.
